Hobby Blogs: Making Profits from your Hobby

In this post Kevin Sanders shares some introductory reasons to take a hobby and blog about it. In effect this is the way that I personally got into blogging – there was no intent of my blogs being anything more than hobbies in my early days – but out of writing about things I was passionate about emerged a business…. Now it’s over to Kevin….

I’ve been going to the gym for about twenty years. I’m not a professional bodybuilder or fitness instructor – lifting weights is just a hobby of mine. But I’ve learned a lot over the years, and I’ve even trained some of my friends. I often give (free) advice about exercise, diet and supplements.

I asked myself this question about ten months ago: Why haven’t I created a fitness blog? I loved the topic, and I already knew the basics of blogging.

So I did it – I created StrongandFit.net. I started blogging, using tips I learned here at problogger.net. Slowly but surely, the traffic started coming. My fitness blog is now most visited (and most profitable) blog. My only regret is I didn’t start it sooner.

Here’s my point: I think there are millions of people who have untapped earning potential in their hobbies (a certain blogger’s digital photography hobby comes to mind). They’ve just never taken the time to share their valuable experiences and expertise online.

Here are some advantages to blogging about your hobby:

Ready-made niche

All the pros agree – you should choose a niche you are passionate about. Well, a hobby is something you already love enough to do with your free time. Seems like the perfect place to start!

Ready-made posts

You’ve probably already invested time, effort, and money into your hobby. Maybe you’ve even answered questions about it or shown others how to get involved. In other words, you probably already have dozens of posts swimming around in your head. All you have to do is take the time and write them down.

Ready-made affiliate opportunities

Most hobbies have books, magazines, equipment, or other products/services. You’ve probably already invested in some of these and formed an opinion regarding which are most valuable. In other words, you are already set to endorse certain products. Your reviews could earn money and help others make good choices.

Re-Energize your hobby

Blogging could get you more involved in something you’re already passionate about. It could even get you back into something you once enjoyed. The process of blogging (research, forums, etc) has an energy to it that ads to the fun.

No expertise necessary

What if you are a novice? No problem! Just be honest about it and invite others along your journey – share what you are doing. Here’s an example from the fitness niche: I’ve seen several blogs created by overweight individuals who want to document their weight loss journey. Some of these are quite inspirational.

If you never make money, it’s OK – its just a hobby

As Darren has pointed out, most of us probably won’t make big money from blogging. My blog is making a little money for me, but I’m nowhere near ready to quit my day job. But that’s the beauty of a hobby blog – you’ll have so much fun you’ll be willing to wait for the profits.

Final Thoughts:

You have a hobby, don’t you? What are you waiting for? Start a blog and monetize it! You have nothing to lose.

The best part about having a hobby blog is, we can have fun and learn from it. It is a great show off, especially in offline circles – believe me!! It is also good to blog on our learnings from our professions. If it doesn’t earn any money, it will at least give a wealth of information that can be put to use offline.

I agree with most of the other commenters, this is a good post. If you know someone who is just getting started or if they are having a bad blog day (something like a bad hair day) and they need a little encouragement refer them to this post. Personally, I need to learn more about Affiliate programs and how they work for my personal blog and for work. I’m sure Darren has more info on this site, I just didn’t get around to reading it yet…too busy blogging, tweeting and facebooking (is that a word?) lol.
Anyway, Kevin keep up the good work and don’t let anyone chane the look of your blog until you are good an ready! Well not unless they are going to do it for FREE.
Smooches!

About 6 mos. ago, I decided to combine my love of writing and yoga and create a yoga blog. Do I want to take off and get 1000 hits a day? You bet! But even if it doesn’t, maintaining the blog pushes me to learn more about an activity in which I’m deeply interested and want to keep doing for the rest of my life!

I completely agree with you! I started my blog http://www.MariaAbroad.com, because living abroad is an essential part of my life and I want to encourage and help others to experience this adventure as well. In addition to that, I have gained a lot of experience in this field and I certainly hope that my advice is helpful for people that plan to study or live abroad for some time. Thanks for encouraging people to blog about their passion and not where they hope to find quick money!
Maria

i love writing and my passion runs through it. i’m new in this area that’s why i am here starting from a scratch. thank you so much for giving me such a wonderful information on how i could be able to generate some money through the thoughts i put to words. i really appreciate it. keep it up.

For my part, I decided to start a blog about something I was interested in but actually had no prior experience. Now I write, in part, about becoming knowledgeable in my field of interest and all the crazy snafus and gaffes along the way.

After being laid off for the first time in my 26 years as a business consultant, I decided to start up an online business. I looked at my passions and what I love to do, and created a blog and website. Having the heart of a servant, blogging meets my need to serve others with good, valid information. I looked to see if this niche was being met and found it was not. So, I went to work. I now provide online Christian based resources, tools and materials for the small group (bible study) community. A BIG thank you to Problogger. I just finished the book too. Problogger has really helped me get my business off the ground.

Thanks for this post. Just as in your example, I blog about my journey to lose weight and I am overwhelmed with the response but never gave much thought to monetizing it. This got some ideas flowing, thanks!

I agree 100% and the internet is so huge that it’s got room for all of us.

I am pretty darn curious about the poll on in the sidebar! Over 1800 people come here and don’t have a blog. Those are only the people that decided to participate in the poll as well.

Darren, I wondered if you had any thoughts on that? Perhaps you’ve written about it already somewhere or you’re wondering the same thing. I know that it’s not going unnoticed though. It’s actually one of the things that I noticed recently as I’ve been building up my new project to help 1000 people before 2010 and take action.

I wonder if there is a reason they are not starting a blog but visiting this blog. Is it preparation, or perfectionists? People researching for school projects that don’t blog?

Emily,
If nothing else, you may want to put adsense on it and just see what happens. Then you could put affiliate links (amazon, shopzilla, etc) for products that are helping you. Email me and I’ll help you in any way I can. The advice is free and it’s probably worth what you paid for it :)

Blogging and dieting are similar–you gotta be very stubborn to see results :)

Handcrafted Silver Jewelry is my crazy Hobby and now my Hobby Blog!!… and it’s just starting to take off! I quit my job last week and I’m loving staying at home with my kids, creating jewelry and blogging! Great tips! Thanks, Darren!

I started my blog(s) sort based on my hobby. I used to collect gif image files that were interesting to me and built a huge archive of these. I looked around a little bit and only found a few competitors out there and thought it would make an interesting blog. Need to supply more content for SEO, but I’m getting better.

I started a blog based on my hobby of rubber stamping and scrapbooking 3 years ago simply because I wanted to be able to share my passion for creating cards, gifts and scrapbook albums. At that time I had no intention of trying to build it into a business. However, as my blog readership grew, I started to see income-generating possibilities. As of 2008 I would consider my “hobby” blog ( http://www.andreawalford.com) to be my full time business and have managed to generate a six-figure income with it that continues to grow.

Good write-up.I strongly agree with depression’s word.If we use blogging just to make money,we won’t get any success in that.So we should share good content with people.So that we can make money from that.Thanks for sharing.Keep it up.Keep posting.

Man what a great article!!!
I can’t get enough of reading your blog Darren, there’s just one article after another of great informative content. I only hope that someday I am as successful as you!!!
Thanks,
Larry C.

Great article, I just decided to start a new blog, not sure if it is about something I could call a hobby. I was wondering should I move the information I have written on my regular blog over or maybe rewrite it.

I agree with you, this is really a great article. I am also doing blogging but i never thought this type of idea & when i read this article i’ll change my mind, first i think blogging is my business but i think that its a my hobby.. It feels me really very nice..